Johor Bahru Utara police deputy chief Yusof Othman said in the incident at 8.11am, the woman driver in her 30s and two passengers, a 27-year-old man and a 35-year-old woman, died at the scene.

He said the MPV was travelling from Bukit Indah towards Johor Bahru before it went out of control.

“The woman driver lost control of the Toyota Alphard before it skidded to the left shoulder of the road and plunged into a 3m-deep drain. It had just stopped raining then,” he said in a statement today.

“All victims who died at the scene were believed to have succumbed to internal injuries. The driver and male passenger were siblings, while the woman passenger was their friend.”

In a separate statement, Larkin fire and rescue station operations commander Haizrul Rahmad said all victims were locals, with the driver identified as Chu Wan Rou, and the male passenger as Chu Wei Yean and female passenger as Aw Siew Chern.